OK, Now That We’ve Dispensed With The Sex
It’s back to freedom, democracy and counter-jihad operations. Frontline on those issues, Pakistan. Turns out they have democracy there after all. For the moment. Hard road, but who ever said it was supposed to be easy? No unkind Bush jokes, please. Enjoy your moment, democracy-loving Paks. Now, you’ll need to run that, and defend it. Latest. Mush urged to quit. AFP:
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf faced mounting calls to quit Tuesday as opposition parties moved towards a coalition government in the wake of a sweeping election victory over his allies.
The widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto said he had no interest in working with Musharraf’s defeated backers, but said he would join forces with other groups opposed to the key figure in US anti-terror efforts.
“We will form a government of national consensus which will take along every democratic force,” Asif Ali Zardari told a news conference a day after the parliamentary elections.
Celebratory gunfire erupted in several cities as unofficial preliminary results showed a big win for the parties of former premier Nawaz Sharif and of Bhutto.
“Musharraf has said he would quit when people tell him. People have now given their verdict,” said two-time prime minister Sharif, ousted by Musharraf in a bloodless 1999 coup.
He said he was set to meet Zardari on Thursday.
Leading pro-democracy lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, held under house arrest since Musharraf imposed a state of emergency in November, said the president should quit because he was the “most hated man in the country.”
Several dozen protesters chanting “Go Musharraf, go!” gathered on Tuesday night outside the house of the country’s deposed chief justice to protest his sacking by Musharraf in November and his continued detention.
Musharraf’s spokesman bluntly rejected such calls and said the former general was willing to work with whoever forms a government.
“They are way off in their demands,” spokesman Major General Rashid Qureshi told AFP. “This is not the election for president. President Musharraf is already elected for five years.”
It was a big loss for Islamists, which is good. That suggests people have had it with al Qaeda and Taliban nonsense, and that doing something about that might become popular with pols.
Reuters, Some risk, some upside for US. STFU, US:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistani voters’ rejection of U.S. ally President Pervez Musharraf forces Washington to find new partners in the key Muslim nation, but also presents a chance to pursue shared interests with wider legitimacy.
The United States reacted cautiously to Monday’s election for the 342-seat National Assembly that showed the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League losing badly to the country’s two main opposition parties.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey urged all parties to remain calm, accept the results and work together. He welcomed the vote as a “step toward the full restoration of democracy.”
The White House, which had considered military strongman Musharraf a bulwark against al Qaeda and the Taliban, expressed hope for continued cooperation on counterterrorism.
A muted U.S. response was prudent while the top vote getter, the Pakistan People’s Party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, discusses with potential partners the shape of a new government, experts said.
“The outcome was not a disaster. It didn’t lead to the victory of anyone who would be deeply dangerous to Washington, but it will complicate things,” said Daniel Markey, a South Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.
He predicted the vote would lead to Musharraf’s eventual departure, but said Washington should tread carefully with prospective new leaders now because “there’s nothing that hurts a Pakistani candidate like the kiss from Washington.”
Sad commentary. Bush-bash if you like, but it’s a long, bumpy history.
Mush isn’t the only one out. Islamists had a bad day, too. AFP:
PESHAWAR - Pakistan’s main alliance of Islamist parties faced heavy losses on Tuesday, early election results showed, five years after winning control of a key province bordering Afghanistan.
The Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal alliance was the third-largest grouping in the previous national parliament with 50 seats.
But they had won just two seats out of 158 counted in unofficial early results announced by state run television Tuesday, the day after crucial parliamentary elections across Pakistan.
Formed in 2002, the alliance won control of the volatile North West Frontier Province on the back of fierce anti-US sentiment after US-led troops overthrew the hardline Taleban regime in neighbouring Afghanistan in late 2001.
Their success in 2002 elections had raised international fears about a growing influence of hardline Islam in politics in nuclear-armed Pakistan. Residents in the provincial capital Peshawar welcomed the setback for the mullahs on Tuesday with gunfire and street celebrations. In one constituency, up to 4,000 people gathered early to celebrate the victory of Arbab Alamgir Khan, from the party of Benazir Bhutto who was slain in a gun and suicide attack in December, an AFP reporter witnessed. They fired volleys of celebratory gunfire into the air and drove around in open trucks shouting, “Long live Bhutto!”
“These people did nothing for us during their five-year tenure and just strengthened the hands of Islamists and those supporting militancy,” said Raees Zaidi, who runs a property business
Topics: everything
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:44 pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2008
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